Brent crude jumps above $105 after Trump speech, WTI tops $103 – SUCH TV

Oil prices surged Thursday after Donald Trump’s address to the nation did little to soothe investor worries over the closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, with the US president calling on other nations to help reopen it.

Brent jumped more than 4% to as high as $105.55, while West Texas Intermediate climbed 3% to hit $103.16. Both contracts had been falling before the US president started his speech.

The prospect of an end to the month-long US-Israeli war with Iran has lifted global stocks and knocked the dollar off its recent highs in the past two sessions after a brutal March, where soaring oil prices sent risk assets into a tailspin.

But Trump, in his prime-time speech, said the US will strike Iran “extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks and hit the country into the “Stone Ages.”

That sent stocks retreating, with US stock futures down 0.67% while European futures were 0.1% lower.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.75%. Japan’s Nikkei reversed course to trade down 0.79% in volatile trading.

Analysts and investors were focusing on when and how the Strait of Hormuz, a major fuel shipment route, would reopen and ease the bottleneck in supply that has hit Asian economies hard.

Iran has repeatedly fired on Gulf countries, some home to US bases, and is using the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, as leverage.

Higher energy prices in March stoked fears of global inflation, with worries about slowing growth also sapping sentiment.

The US dollar has been the haven of choice among investors during the tumult, and the greenback rose against most currencies after the speech.